Saturday, June 23, 2007

Nifong as "Unique Person"

In perhaps the most (unintentionally) hilarious item of the Dudley Witt closing argument, the defense attorney attempted to defend Mike Nifong's failure to turn over exculpatory evidence on the grounds that Nifong was "his own unique person."

I guess at that point the defense team was at Witt's end trying to defend Nifong, and since they had run out of things to say, they just had to invent stuff off the top of their heads.

If you follow Witt's argument, Nifong is a unique person with his own definiton for turning over discovery evidence ("I turned it over even though I didn't"). By the same token, we could argue that Mangum is a unique person with her own definition of rape ("I was raped even though I wasn't").

If you agree with Witt, then the three defendants should be locked up because of Nifong's and Mangum's uniqueness. This argument is certainly as convincing as the "something must have happened" theory, which seems to suggest that you can be arrested for first-degree something or for an unspecified occurrence.

Uniqueness has lost its... uniqueness. Now Nifong is his own unique person, and as the inimitable thugnigga told the world, those LAX players were "hoping to consume something that they felt that a black woman uniquely possessed".

If only Nifong were unique... and as for consuming Mangum's possession...gack!

I just read Gottlieb's report and I think it further implicates Duke in the perpetuation of the Hoax. it says that the police were in a conversation with Duke about "bringing the boys in under the radar to give statements and to have conversations." ie without real representation. Also Gottlieb says that Duke handed over the disc that contained the lacrosse roster for the faulty id and that Duke handed over the key card records of the kids-without a subpoena. But the biggest thing is that Crimestoppers handed over Ryan's emnail to the police and guess who is on the Board of Crimestoppers-Dean -throw the lacrosse team under the bus to protect her own butt-Sue.

I have a question. I have thought for some time that in, a sense, the dancer was possibly a "victim" of Nifong. Here's how: she made a stupid accusation for some reason - I'm not sure why. Nifong picked up on her accusation as an instrument that he could use to increase the potential for his victory in the upcoming election. If she had a sober moment along the way, she must have realized how unbelievable her story was and in fact couldn't remember one narrative long enough to keep it straight. Now here's my question: Might she have indicated at some point along the line that she want out of this, but Nifong, through others, said "No, you cannot get out of this and if you try, I will bring charges against you." If she tried to get out of it by saying that she exaggerated or made it up or couldn't remember how would Nifong handle that? Might she therefore have indeed been his "victim" in that sense and might she at some point turn on him? I don't feel sorry for her at all, but I'll bet you that Nifong is a flatout snake who would manipulate her in just this manner.

He didn't turn it over because he thought the full report would include the data. Well, why didn't they turn over the full report? They didn't turn it over because the election hadn't taken place.C'mon DimWitt

Ah, the "Unique person" defense. Yet another one of Nifong's bizarre defenses along with variations such as the "I hate making copies" defense, the "These materials are too voluminous to copy" defense and the "It just didn't click" defense.

There are a number of plausible reasons why Mangum made the false accusation: (1) she was bombed out of her mind, which is not too good at any time, (2) she thought she could extort hush money from some rich, naive, white boys a la The 100 Dollar Misunderstanding, (3) she wanted to stay out of a detox facility, or (4) any combination of the foregoing.

I have long suspected that she MAY have wanted to get off the tiger. After all, the prior time that she had pulled this trick (to be distinguished from her professional tricks) it had just disappeared down the memory hole. But Nifong thought he was going to get elected governor or maybe even president by vindicating this disadvantaged single mother of color. So when drug-addled fool meets ambition-addled fool, fiasco is inevitable.

"I expect it will be that she wanted to bail but that Nifong and cronies blackmailed her."

Can one be less powerless than CGM? I'll bet Nifong coolly, intentionally, heatlessly warned her not to back out of it. I wonder, in fact, if she finally backed out and that's what brought it down? I hope someone is looking over her. I hate to see her disappear. Will we ever know? How would we know?

Nifong and Magnum are the same kind of people. Its not surprising that they find themselves in the soup together. They both tell fantastic lies (to use Evan's phrase), get confused, change their story, tell more lies, don't remember where they went wrong, and they're both good at pointing fingers if blame. Neither is particularly interested in the facts. They rely on impressions and preferences; the facts don't matter much and just clutter the mind.

I doubt Nifong ever worked very hard to uncover facts.

Magnum could well hold to her "something happened" story forever, along with Nifong.

Nifong's team was using the (Peanuts)Lucy Van Pelt defense, which was when Lucy was telling Linus that the "knotty pine" theywere looking at would one day become a giant oak. His storieschanged more than Lucy's, and wereeven less believable.(The doctor is still in: Nifong should make an appointment.)

Nifong really isn't unique, though: he was the lead lemmingon the race to the cliff.

Crystal Mangum is a bottom feeder. Just by listening to the characters in her family, not one has an ounce of decency. They lie at the drop of a hat.She's never had to take responsibility for her life in any meaningful way. She was still pushing Roy Cooper to continue the case.It's a simple fact--the lacrosse players were sent a specimen of the scum that is part of our society that night. We've seen what transpired as a result.The thing that is of concern are the countless people who still support her claims and who also hold positions of responsibility in society. How insane are these people?Scum like Mangum are so accustomed to having everything go their way just by playing the victim and turning tricks that it never occurred to her and Nifong that someone might turn on the lights inside the cesspool in Durham.This case also shows how dumb the people at Duke are, also, and how out of touch.

Just read at playboy.com that Crystal Mangum--the innocent honors student who was molested by Duke lacrosse players--will be posing for Playboy. Supposedly Crystal has lost 20 pounds and looks wonderful. Hopefully, she'll use her check to put her children in a private school.

Although I'm black, I have a lot of respect for the Hefner family, especially Chryssie.

Crystal will war her exquisite blackness like an erotic mirror set up to reflect the crimes of those alcoholic perverts masquerading as gentlemen.

Crystal Gail Mangum's reputation will be totally vindicated, and a true beauty will light up the world to white privilege and hypocrisy.

Mangum is just another person of color, disadvantaged by laziness, a lack of impulse control and an unwillingness to defer gratification. These characteristics have turned her into a professional victim, liar, and hustler. She lives in a society that encourages her to blame her bad outcomes on white people. This time she got caught. She needs to suffer for it.

I am a friend of Crystal's, and I strongly disagree with your racist characterization.

What happened to Crystal was not criminal, but pathetic. While in the bathroom with the boys (which boys we'll never know as she was too wasted to be able to identify anyone), she got a few extra dollars to suck on a few scrotums. She told me that the lacrosse players at one point had 2 scrota in her mouth. Crystal was dutifully sucking away when one of the players exploded (he had been masturbating while Crystal was sicking his testicles). I'm convinced that is why Dave Evans's jissum was on the tissue in the trash.

The bottom line is that there was no crime until Crystal decided to lie to avoid time in jail or the mental hospital. The sad thing is she's remorseful about lying. Surprisingly she's resentful at whomever she was sucking off did not admit that a black woman could give a privileged lacrosse player the best orgasm he's ever had.

11:35I agree, but no one is going to make that happen. We all have been praising Roy Cooper, but his handling of her is sickening to me. She's not really insane to the point of not knowing right from wrong. These statements have been made so often that they are now accepted.This woman is a fuck-up and in her past she has never had to answer for her crimes. How anyone can say that there is heavier prosecution of blacks is preposterous, especially in Durham. They run around committing crimes like flies.Roy Cooper is going to need the black Democrat vote and he didn't want to get into prosecuting a black prostitute. Prostitutes are revered by some in Durham as we all have witnessed.

To 11:00, get a clue. Cooper said Mangum was dissapointed he wasn't going to proceed with the case.So, how could Nifong have been forcing Mangum? Nifong was long gone when Cooper got the case.I find it amazing how people keep sticking to that story even though Mangum wanted to proceed long after Nifong was gone.

Um. Tell us more about the levitation.Someone earlier stated that thismight represent a new, heretofore unknown energy source,and your friend seems to have managedto have accomplished several things:She altered timeShe changed the shape of spaceShe violated the laws of gravity

KC Johnson has worked here for truth and justice and I appreciate some of the insightful comments made by bloggers over the months. But I'm turned off by some of the racist comments of late. Facts matter, not race! The other comment that's particularly sickening is from the blogger pretending to by the accuser's "friend". A few bloggers insist that even the good guys are bad, i.e. Cooper, because they didn't do everything exactly right, or in exact agreement with the way the blogger wanted.

In sum, I'm moving on. I'll catch KC Johnson's book when its published in September. Maybe he'll draw from the blog to illustrate high road vs. low brow thinking.

Some of your comments have really hit the truth-target, however, and for that I am grateful.

Unfortunately, no. Big bureaucracies without personnel turnover and without merit-based evaluation systems seemed to be at risk of (a) retaining this type of person, which can be tolerably okay if he'd stayed in traffic court but then (b) Peter Principle or promotion/transfer circumstances, each their own unique combination of events, unfortunately puts such a personality in a decision/power position. Decision/power/authority + stress => ego will do anything to keep that position of importance rather than return to traffic court.

I've seen this in the military-industrial complex. Co-workers tried the 'he's a unique person, be patient with him' comment. Then eventually those co-workers too became targets of the bully.

Human Resources only knows how to deal with sexual or physical harassment, not the kind of verbal harassment and power abuse this type of lying personality can get away with.

Unfortunately, no. Big bureaucracies without personnel turnover and without merit-based evaluation systems seemed to be at risk of (a) retaining this type of person, which can be tolerably okay if he'd stayed in traffic court but then (b) Peter Principle or promotion/transfer circumstances, each their own unique combination of events, unfortunately puts such a personality in a decision/power position. Decision/power/authority + stress => ego will do anything to keep that position of importance rather than return to traffic court.

I've seen this in the military-industrial complex. Co-workers tried the 'he's a unique person, be patient with him' comment. Then eventually those co-workers too became targets of the bully.

Human Resources only knows how to deal with sexual or physical harassment, not the kind of verbal harassment and power abuse this type of lying personality can get away with.

Jun 24, 2007 8:31:00 AM

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I work in such a place. You really got it right. I work with a guy that is just like Nifong. Nobody in HR will touch him. He is abusive to the public and is a total jerk. The system lets him go on.

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